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Getting consensus on product strategy and roadmaps

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Product

Getting support for a long-term product roadmap requires collaboration and input from team members and stakeholders.

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My Role: Bringing people together

  • Small group. I'd start with the engineering/software development manager, the applicable SME (e.g., clinical pharmacy manager), the QA lead and the UX/UI designer.

  • Team huddle. Then, I'd add in team members from Marketing, Data Analytics, Accounts Management, and Sales.

  • The big share. At the next phase of the roadmap development process, I'd present the roadmap to department heads, executives, and other stakeholders.

Execution

Small group sessions

Starting with conversations with our development manager and our clinical pharmacy manager helped me frame up a rough draft of the 12-month roadmap. Then, I'd bring in our QA Manager and UX Designer. Together, we'd frame up design and development timeframes.

Team huddle

With some initial consensus, I would present the draft 12-month roadmap to our entire team, about 24 people. Soliciting all of their opinions was important to help determine what I was missing from the roadmap and if we were being as forward-thinking as we needed to be.

The big share

Leading a separate meeting with other departments enabled understanding among those stakeholders. It also served as an opportunity for them to inform our team about potential upcoming regulations, upcoming company goals, and other relevant inputs.

Tweaks to the roadmap

Our team was dedicated to the user (in this example it was users/people taking medications). Therefore, sometimes we needed to change course to address the users' biggest pain points. I’d make those tweaks to the Roadmap.

And the reality is...as with all the best laid plans, not everything goes according to plan. That's why I built cushion in the roadmap to accommodate necessary changes of course - to respond to immediate user needs or business strategy decisions. Overall, the roadmap would be a solid launching pad that helped with goal-setting and aligning with the product strategy.

Challenges & Achievements

Challenges

  • The complexity of the medications and pharmacy space. The tech stack was very complex and required significant and ongoing backend work, which sometimes required projects lasting as long as 6 to 9 months. That was a hard sell to the executives.

  • Competing views. All with the goal of helping the user, we still had differing opinions on what issues/problems to address in the short-, medium- and long-term.

  • Budget. The company's budget was always a limiting factor in what we could develop during the year.

Achievements

  • Presentation to 120 internal stakeholders, dept heads, execs. Presented our company's business case, strategies, and product to 120+ team members within the company.

  • 12-month roadmap. Convincing others on the importance of certain features required evidence, time, and extensive Q&A sessions. However, thanks to those sessions, I produced a better, more informed roadmap that gained buy-in from team members.

  • Unified on strategy. My aim was to ensure all team members were part of the process and that we addressed the pros/cons of approaches.